A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Given competing stats about book sales, what is real -- and what is realistic?

It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. 

Today's topic takes a look (again) at book sales. Unfortunately, get accurate accountings of book sales across the book industry is very difficult. Book Scan is not accurate. Amazon bestselling rankings have quirks. Publishers do not like to share their sales figures with other publishers, let alone authors. The range that can be found online is wild. 

• When reading sales figures, it is critical to read them with a jaundiced eye because often these "statistics" come from author groups with great hopes for best sellers among their members. Generally, in my experience, the reports of sales are vastly exaggerated, often because of how they are reported. For example, one author group recently claimed that, hurrah, hurrah, the average annual revenue for authors reached $80K last year. Let's dissect that figure.
• The first thing that jumps out is the reporting of "average" revenue. Average means that all 60 million authors out there go into the same pot, then the total revenue among them is divided by the total number of authors. Considering that a handful of authors produce the NYT bestsellers (e.g. according to one researcher, only 28 books -- 8 of them by the same author -- sold more than 500K copies), those high sales numbers of a very few authors balance out no sales or low sales from a very, very large number of authors at the other end of the scale. Mean has a meaning; average does not.
• Revenue and sales copies are not consistent across genres. Someone writing about architecture is much less likely to sell thousands of copies than is someone writing a romance novel.
• Those "statistics" change radically among groups: name-recognition fiction (and some non-fiction) authors like Stephen King & Steve Covey will tip the scales high while first-time authors, academic writers, and self-publishers among others will tip the scales low. So, which group do you fall into? It is a sobering look if you look at the statistics realistically.

A fairly consistent set of figures come from book publicists (who have to have a good understanding of sales possibilities). Recently, Marissa Eigenbrood of Smith Publicity, one of the leading publicity firms, provided some believable and indeed sobering statistics, cited here:

• Past the top 100 books on Amazon, the figures are "dire."
• An average book sells 200 copies.
• An average bestseller sells 2000 copies.
• Almost all significant book sales are to "communities," typically book clubs, authors' social media followers, or interest groups (like true crime).

So, what do you do if you are a first-time author, no-degree Mr./Ms. nobody, with a great book? Is there no hope? There is hope, with realistic goals: look for healthy sales that you work hard for, not relying on a dream of NYT discovering you and your book. How do you work hard?

• Marissa suggests that authors should not think of book sales as their goal, but rather of getting the author's message out, for which the book can be a great conduit. She suggests using the book to build a speaking platform, connect with a target audience, build brand, and generate leads for your business (assuming that you do or will have one).
• If your heart is nonetheless set on building good sales for your book, not building a particular business, then hard work and some luck can help. Hard work means weekly, if not daily work on getting your book out there and sold.
• Build, build, build your platform. 
• Use social media to advantage, ravenously, diligently, daily; over time, with some luck, you will be discovered by an influencer or will hit the right combination of ads on Face Book, Twitter, Instagram to propel your book to higher levels of sales. While advertising in the big mags that authors/publishers with deep pockets can do may be out of your reach, you can do targeted marketing that can be fairly effective through social media.
• Release a press release (if you are self-published) whenever you receive an award or conduct a media-worthy event (or, if you are traditionally published, let your publisher know); any time a press release can go to local media outlets or national media sources, it makes for another win.
• Your book has a message; look for other ways to get that message out --- and mention your book.
• Take your books to fairs and local events; take it with you when you travel and see if the hotel will let you display it; offer to speak about the topic of your book at organizations where you have a connection.
• Find the "community" for your book -- it might be an organization, or a book group, or a business, or an interest group. Your book "belongs" somewhere, and you are the best one to find where that somewhere is.
• Make sure you have good SEO for your book; provide your publisher with ideas for SEO improvement (after all, you know your topic best); work with your publisher to get your book into the smallest niche possible (small fish are easier to find in small ponds than big lakes).

Bottom line: With 60 million books in print, the competition for sales is extremely high, and any one book has an upriver swim just to get noticed. 

Lesson for today's Tuesday talk: Realize that if you want good sales, just like the Fuller Brush Man (remember those days?), you are going to have to work hard, knocking on doors and demonstrating that your book is the best thing since sliced bread and just the thing that the potential reader wants.

See more Publisher Conversations with authors HERE.

 Learn more about publishing from an acquisitions editor -- how to get your book proposal accepted, why proposals are turned down/accepted, and how to find the right publisher for your book. On special sale for $5 while inventory lasts at MSI Press webstore.

The Tuesday talks reflect real discussions between the management of MSI Press LLC and our own authors or those would-be authors who come through our doors but don't make the cut--yet. If you have a topic that you would like addressed, leave the question in the comment section. Chances are, in our 18 years of publishing first-time and experiences authors, we have had a conversation with one of our authors that we can share with you.

                             

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